Golden Azrael

We're just waiting for the Hammer to Fall, yeahp. Azrael.

Yes. I've seen one of those in action. Control. Fire. Doom. A 'robust' Dominator selection. Azrael.

There is a pain barrier to go through with them. Other ATs may offer easier, low hanging fruit. ie. I've seen Sentinel players expect to go into a mob and not drop like a ton of bricks. And drop with the glass jaw and wonder what happened. That's inexperience of ATs. As I moved through the ATs, I favour the ones that have less damage throughput but offer more 'fun' or 'tactical' challenge or more 'power' which isn't necessarily the highest in damage throughput. But I can see how you may think a Domi or a Blaster is 'awful' if you haven't had the experience to understand the context of just how 'great' a Domi is at 1st glance because you're playing a scrapper which can eat mobs with impunity or a brute....or doesn't do the damage of say, a blaster. But part of gaining CoH mastery? Play a dominator. Play a domi to L8, L16, L22, L32, L38, L50. Each one of those will give a different picture. But the picture does become more complete. From Hate. To frustration. ('Why did I roll one of these back on live?) To love. The Domi AT is an art form. Damage throughput or Power? That said. Some domi's get to have both... Azrael.

I had a Stone/Stone domi (not set build...just SOs...) to L50 on live. The POW-Urhh. The CoNtOl. The teH SmAsH. (A she...) SOUND! VISCERAL! SMASHING! Unbridled joy. DOMINATING LARGE SPAWNS. DomINaTOR DEStInY. *choke them....knock them down...hAmMer smash...SeiSmic SmaSH...SToNE SpEAr if you try to escaPE! Could you imagine all that with defence cap? Perma hasten? Perma domi?\ I was 100% melee after laying down the controls. Azrael.

Illusion Rad with a complete set of Stone Epic in my case! 😄 I just had to 'try' it. I've had a terrific amount of fun with it. I'm near capped. Very difficult to hit. Choking Cloud.... 🙂 'I'll attack you...I'll urh...EH? URK!!! Can't....breath...' Anchors on bosses to debuff or AVs. Debuff. Debuff. Debuff. ::D Try both to L22 and SOs and see which you like more. I don't have any 'trap's only a devices blaster. I can see the appeal. Traps and Illu make have that 'Magician' vibe. Who knows what your concept is. But why not try both and see which bakes your noodle. It takes 'no time' to get to L22 these days. Azrael.

It's a terrific AoE attack for a Tank. Very satisfying 'chunk' as it levels half a huge mob. Azrael.

Your comments on War Mace are spot on. It's the superior set, of course. I could well have seen Clobber as a 'Stun' (EM's 'Stun' could learn something from that...ie add some damage to it...)- that makes sense. Good that the dev's beefed it up....War Mace is a rare breed with great single target and sound AoE. As for Battle Axe. Whilst it doesn't quite hit the heights of War Mace it's certainly not 'weak.' It's just not quite as good. I can go into mobs and hurt them a plenty with it. And the knockback is fine by me. I'd caveat that with...it is an old set and could do with a 'design pass' as could Energy Melee on Tank. Maybe add some bleed damage pinched from Savage melee. It is an axe after all. As for not encouraging anyone to roll an Axe. Life is in the trying of things. Otherwise I wouldn't have rolled an Ice/Ice/Ice tank. I soft capped it. Maxed out it's damage capability. And with the recent Tank changes, the AoE on it is 'just fine' as opposed to the previous so-so. Very survivable. Equally so, Shield/Battle Axe is a lot of fun. Axe-ing mobs is 2 dimensional but great ham burger fun. In the way that beating on Council Mobs never gets old. And on a brute? Teh Fury. Teh Build UP. Teh 'chunk.' 'That's gonna hurt in the morning, son.' The reason I rolled mine was because I saw a scrapper Shield/Axe having far too much fun on a farm mission sending mobs flying with an axe. I had to have a piece of that action... I'd recommend anyone 'not sure' or 'nervous' about trying things. Try an AT or said Power choices upto L8. The character slots are abundant and game are now 'free.' Try 'it' you never know....you may like it. Azrael.

DUO-ing is a the premier art in CoH. Try to experiment by duo-ing with different ATs and power set combos. They will each bring something to the table. Some will do damage through put that will have you standing there...others will compliment you....and allow you to go at a synergistic pace. So, I think a Defender would be my 1st pick. A bit of co-depency on buff survival and making both more potent through buffs. Two trollers and you have lock down. Damage will be 'wholesale.' And a tank and you may find yourself at odds but it can work if you work with the tank. That's part of the fun of CoH. Trying. Finding out. See what works. Duo-ing is a great way to see what does and doesn't as it has its 'own pace.' You gain an intimate understanding of how another 'hero' works over time. Azrael.

I quite enjoyed active 'Cave' farming with my Fire Blaster. A thing of beauty. But I have to pop the inspires from time to time. Not as robust as a Brute for these purposes. But it's fun to see a whole cave on fire. Azrael.

WM/Regen is a sound (unfashionable but insightful) choice and proved its worth in combat. Occasionally susceptible to the alpha but with a shield charge/battle axe brute to follow you in...not too perilous. Quick Recovery offers gallons and gallons of end *though it won't stop it going down in really intense battles...* but most of the time is solid blue. Yes, Shield does puff and pant (*cheeky*) on it's way to about L45...then the tide starts to turn somewhat. (But Shield doesn't have the end or heal recovery of Regen...ofc 😛 ) I recall having 3 uniques for the plus end proc return and I was STILL having end issues in prolonged battles, despite double SO'ing the heavy attacks. With extra set building...and hitting... L50 with Agility (I think I took...) these 'out of breaths' are almost gone completely...along with hitting harder with Assault means the battles don't take as long. So more end, battles taking less time due to increased damage. I was about at the soft cap last I checked. So I don't get hurt as much so don't need to heal (or pop greens in my case...) and yes. End. Pretty much a problem consigned to history. Shield Charge is a good fulcrum in mitigating heal hurt and end expenditure. I'm almost of the opinion that I should have rolled a 'tank' version of Shield with BAxe allowing Tath to do the chief damage. Still, I can build more res' into the brute. Playing two brutes back to back is quite fun. 1st time we've done that. You get to see their damage power grow over time. They munch small encounter mobs for breakfast. And? Relentless. For those who like to push the boat out into enemy territories with skirmish flakes for breakfast. Whilst Shield is fashionable...(and I can rec' it with Battle Axe...) If you haven't rolled a War Mace Regen. What are you waiting for? You want fun, right..? Sound fx. Satisfying chud, thuds...etc. The you know when you've been hit sfx. Teh hammer, it doth smite them... Azrael.

Aye. Playing to the Defender's strengths. You're right about each power set having a concept. And in FF's case, I always took 'most' of the powers. (On my recent FF/EN Def' build the only power I left out where Force Bolt and 'Bomb.' I maybe have left PFF out as well. But I kept the buffs. I kept the melee debuff of rep' field... And I like Detention field for isolating bosses.) Being able to def/insul bubble team mates goes a long way. Force Bubble is fun to herd and push around mobs. If you get another Bubbler...these things can over lap and stack. Azrael.

At least we get to enjoy CoH in the meantime this time! Azrael. 😉

An intune DUO Partner is the *only* way to truly travel in COH. And yes. To push the envelop in interesting ways in combat and builds and thus combat and tactics once more. Ebb and flow of the dance of power and understanding to achieve more power to push the level of challenge. To push the glass ceiling on those weaknesses. I full agree with your latter sentiment. As to anyone being 'nervous' as a tank. Don't be. Play on the 1-8 levels by yourself and learn your trade in Atlas then the Hollows. Learn how to take on 1 mob, then 2 then 3 mobs...then a group of 5-8 etc. Once you can do the Hollows you're on your way. Your jaw will tell you if you're getting it right. Practice pulling them around...to corners...to reduce the incoming damage. Lots of tactics to learn. As you grow in power you can pull one mob into another mob. etc. You're a tough guy. You can handle it. Get to L22 with SOs in your Stamina, def' and attacks along with the recent tank patch...you'll be on your way to god hood. With a boost in stamina, def', res' and damage power. Invul/SS would be a decent starting tank to get you going. With the Uber Rage in your SS set later on. Though any tank would do. Azrael.

The Defender option is the more interesting, of course. It offers the synergy to allow both to thrive. Buff the tank to take even more aggro and the the tank offers protection in turn to allow the defender to offend. Synergistic. Bringing out the potential in each other. Where as the obvious choice just sees the eg. fire blaster vaporizing the mobs in seconds with the tank being little more than the 'get' aggro guy or 'door stop.' I think Tank and Defender. You can get lots of interesting combinations. Using the art of buff and debuff...which is where the CoH game shines. It depends on whether damage throughput vs interesting gameplay is the measure of fun. I have an elec/elec/elec domi. It doesn't vaporise mobs...but boy...it ties all comers in knots, end drains them and pulls their legs of their spiders. Azrael.

Personally, I found that the difficult levels 1-5 were ok for the pick up and play mainstream crowd from 1-50 with SOs. There's Incarnate trials for those that want to push it. And soloing the ITF or TFs. But an elite mode for the game's content in general? Perhaps that 'elite' mode should be focused in Kalista with mobs, general mission content, TFs etc. Surprise AV attacks on the street...Setting the 'Elite' challenge in mobs, AVs, missions and spawn attacks for those with the incarnate and IO set builds. A really dangerous zone in the way Bricks would be if you went there as a Talos level hero. So it becomes the successor to P.Isle in terms of post L50 content in general instead of Shift levels being isolated largely to Trials. I think focusing the uniqueness of story and challenge in Kalista would address those seeking a new story and difficulty challenge. I'm not fond of the Key's trial and the difficulty of it... Some do. I'd rather the difficulty challenge where it next goes further plays into the unique attributes of each AT. An elite mode for the game in general? Perhaps. But I'd focus that in a 'next gen' 'end game' challenge in an area that is under developed eg. Kalista. Where this can be a hot bed of focused challenge for devs and player. ie. You're an incarnate. Now meet your incarnate challenge. A zone where the incarnates meet and battle... Mobs, AVs, factions, Trials, TFs all come together in true end game content where Gods battle Gods on the 'mountain top' of Kalista... Azrael.

Good idea for an elite mode that works for 'Incarnate IO set built rollers.' Azrael.

Atlas vs Independence Port. The Mobs vying for Supremacy. A power struggle of epic proportions. With actual AVs wandering the streets or hitting you with a surprise attack if you stay TOO LONG in their territory...(ie you're going to get booted out certain parts of the streets if you stray too close to the villain base....as part of those gangs maybe...with their lackey big monsters popping up in surprise attacks. (You could have certain missions as AV mission bases in unassuming warehouses..., 'Uh oh...Maestro is here...' Randon spawns of AVs too maybe. You get to know where these AVs hang out over time. And you'll need help to take them down, especially if below L50. This becomes the storyline. You could weave the mobs from Atlas to Hollows to Kings to Steel to IP to Talos to Bricks to Founders to P.I in a round robbin conflict reflected on the streets ie via their presence...occosionarlly spawning AV faction leader for each mob...on the street or IN missions...(more of a surprise element) and more thoroughly pollinated through a TF...where we get the 'low down' on the power struggle as Frostfire...Maestro and Dr. V face off for 'King of the AV hill...' in Kallista. It maybe even fun to see two AVs spilling their conflict onto the street. Eg. Frostfire and Dr. Vahz get down to it...with mobs pulled into the conflict...and players caught off guard...do they call for help? or tackle them alone? :OO Forces. Hellions. Outcasts. Trolls. Skulls. MOAR Outcasts. Warriors. Tsoo. Council. Family. MoAR Council. Crey. Nemesis. (Maybe some Malta...) NOOOOOOOO....Arachnos. They suck, mahn. So those are my ideas because they are the zones and the mobs I associate CoH with most fondly as you progress through the game and a relief to some of the end game mobs like Carnie, Nems, Arachnos that debuff you to death. (That can get tiresome...) Malta...not as bad. They could be included in Kalista. Azrael.

Some good ideas there for starters. Kalista. It's a cross between Atlas and I.P to me. There's a few zone flavours in there. A beautiful zone. Commendable work. But it needs it's own 'soul' zone wise. (The new graphics team in the post Cryptic split...their work, whilst good, could be too clean and souless at times. You see that in the new additions to the old warehouse maps. It's glaring.) I'd like to see some of Galaxy's urban critters in the grungier parts of the zone. So it could combine Galaxy's grunge alongside Atlas's more heroic challenge with some IP zone elements. Council. Family(!) Tsoo. Outcasts (from Steel, love them...) Some Council and Vamps from Bricks (they got kicked out of Bricks?) and Helions from Atlas/Galaxy. Something like that. Celebrating some of the good zones. Perhaps even the Warriors from Talos. Kalista should be a celebration of City of Heroes zones. Maybe even fit some Trolls in any secret caves in Kalista... Have them hit like a truck. But I'm betraying my favourite zones and mobs there. 😉 And for those complaining about Spam trollers and Incarnate rolling teams... ...perhaps some Level shifted missions or stories so we have a 'post 50 zone' that supercedes P.Isle at top of the tree rather than limited shift level content only on trials and such forth. Perhaps fill the zone out with AE work (dev's choice...) to start with. Great zone needing content. It's top of the tree, zone wise to me. So I'd expect to see many mob factions vying for supremacy there...? Azrael.

I like Touch of Fear. Out psych' the mobs. *Frowns. '...' *Puts hand in mobs face. *Glares at. Motions to the other guy. *You're next.* Azrael.

I get your point about EM. 'Done.' I recall my Duo buddy having a pre-EM nerf Tanker. The 'big hitters' were insta-hit and put the drop on the mob. ie. Knock their lights out type of stuff. I did try one at L11 on live back then...but I didn't get to really play it until they 'nerfed' or 'changed' it. So I can't speak from true personal experience before the change. But I did note my duo buddy grumbling about the change to the set and Energy Transfer in particular. Noted: re: Dark Consumption. They changed it back again? Why? Dark Melee could be a great set. It's 'nearly' there but the back end of the set drags on the set overall. Getting Soul Drain perma. I should try that someday. When I get my new rig. Azrael.

The truth? WE CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!!! MOAR dAMGE! End of argument with far less penalties. Cake it and eat it. The tanks were eclipsed by the most of the tank Brutes as soon as they came over to hero side. MOAR damaAGE! MoST of TeH resistance and survivy. Just as much AGeRO. And to add insult to injury you can pile resists in an IO set build or defence cap to render the argument MoOT. And have way more damage. So what's the point of playing a tank unless you want to hang out with Controllers who also do 'not as much damage' as a scrapper. (Part from those Fire/Kins controllers...but we don't talk about that...) I still like tanks. The recent tank patch is the 1st step to tank redemption. Give them a 'Rage' toggle button or a domi damage builder button. POP! RAGE!!!! Sustained damage boost for a minute and drop build up like the limited stink it is. Liberate tankers from 2nd fiddle to Brutes. Think the Fury mech' was originally intended for Tanks. But we got brutes instead. 🙂 It's the Superman vs Hulk argument. They both do great damage. But that comparison doesn't translate into the CoH game. One IS. The other builds to IS. That's my design hint to take tanks to the next level. Damage wise. Then...the sea change of players to tanks would happen. Azrael. PS. My top tanker tip is to play in a duo with a like minded friend. Then you will see the appeal of the tanker. But in a post incarnate world of uber builds and penalty less IO sets....the tanker has a fight on his hands.

Hello Shock'. War Mace and Battle Axe are very similar. War Mace is 'better' but Battle Axe is still fun and it hurts with it's knock up and down and decent AOEs. I think Battle Axe was derived from War Mace. (Hey, another way to get a good attack set in the game.) War Mace seems a touch quicker and more damaging. That said, I played a brute alongside my DUO partner. They went War mace (I'd already done that on live...on my elec /Mac tanker...great fun...) so I went Battle Axe as I had never tried it. On two brutes? We'd crunch out the mobs. Crunch....spin...(the AoEs are great fun for mob melting...) upper cut...smack down attacks. It's very two dimensional but great fun in the way that pressing 'that button' never gets boring. The hamburger that always hits the spot in battle. Plus. As brutes? The madder Bulk gets... Extreme damage is better than Superior. Try both up to L8 on a brute and see which one bakes your cake. My pref' was War Mace. But I have to say I really like Battle Axe. They both grow in stature with the fury bar...before you know it you'll be two shotting mobs. That much fun shouldn't be allowed. Meanwhile EM lacks such impetus. But that's a separate discussion. My brute is Shields/B Axe by the way and L50. Shield charge and those BA aoes... Mobs find it hard going. Great sets. There is a lovely 'smooth' (bloody?) poetry about Axe or Mace... The ballet of mob death. I'd try EA/War Mace 1st... then try a Shield BAxe after. It was seeing a scrapper running shield baxe that made me want to try it. And I hasn't done Axe on live. Azrael.

Contrary. The only **** sucking is when I put the Malta to the sword using those very powers. Detention Field (wut you going to do now Sapper or Titan Man? Takes out the Cowboy gun runner) and Repulsion field (the latter takes some contextual mastering...but when you do...it partners very nicely with the Leadership power Moment of Victory...) and that stacks with Force Bubble. When to use bubbles at range vs protection in melee. A vamp tries to sneak up on you and KO you out? Rep' field...'wahhhhhhhheeeey......' *goes flying. Toggle management. Sure. But intelligent contextual playing. The only power I think sucks is the 'Bomb' which, in reality is no Nova. If it had Nova's scatter and damage boom factor, truly would be worthy. FF. Very thoughtful set. It lays down the gauntlet to try and master it...whilst masquerading as a 'passive' set. 😉 *moves Knight to centre of the chess board. Azrael. PS. *Waves* at Philotic Knight.

Offender who loves attacking as much as defending or buffing. As Blasters called Blappers are more fond of using melee attacks than range. Or a Skranker ( a tank that plays as scrapper...) Force fielder's bible. My own personal bible... was pushing the FF/EN defender to the maximum offensive edge I could. It was primarily built as part of a Defender DUO with two defenders each having FF and A.N.Other attack. En' in my case. Dark Blast in their's. When we overlapped stackable FFs and buffed Def/Ins' bubbles. We then began to take on all comers. By the time I hit L50? The build was optimised for defence and boosted for attack. +4x8 Council? I don't have Hasten on my build. Part of me wishes I had it. But it's very respectable. And you can take incarnates such as Musc, Assault to boost attack or Agility with the Incarnate FF from destiny.... Or go for turbo/stamina from Destiny. So many choices. But building in as much resistance and def' into your build allows this flexibility. Kicking Az? No problem. And I can still buff. BUFF! Troublesome boss? Detention field. Kill the trash. Wait with the 'Going to get you stare...' for the boss. Chess. With knockback as opposed to knock down. Skittles. 🙂 Azrael. PS. I have an En/En blaster with a good dollop of KB to KD convertors. But not in the Nova or all powers. It can be strategically interesting. But if it was all pervasive it would be as dull as ditch water. I like Knock Back. Especially on my 'Rock and Roll' Sentinel. A blaster than can Junior Tank. *Sends Council Vamp flying. It's doing what I dreamed my blaster en en on live could do. An En/Energy Shield Sentinel is a wonder of sorts for any En/KB fan. The only thing that beats it is a 600 million+ En/En Blaster with Bonfire. I guess I'm addicted to the Energy sets. And Force field. It was my '1st love' on Live. I've rolled it three times. I think this time I've 'almost' mastered it. But it was build as part of a duo of Force fielders.

Define 'Weak.' Every AT or Power set has it's 'weak spot.' If Damage throughput is your idea of 'power' then roll a fire blaster? But true power is in the control sets of Controller and Domi and locking down huge mobs. Sure, it may take a while to 'do them' but it's fundamentally about: Blast dead 1 sec vs artfully pulling the legs off the spider. It's like driving 'slower' vs fast. It's a mind set kind of thing. Pun intended. Do you like squashing spiders or pulling their legs off? Discuss. Sleep is one of the most powerful powers in the game. (As long as you don't have people on your team spamming AoEs...) You can put mobs into a deep sleep and take...them...out....one by one. And on Domi? Godly. Azrael.